The CEM – Minho Engineering Competition brought together 75 participants, on October 13 and 14, at the Azurém Sports Complex. The event, organized by the Nucleus of Students of the School of Engineering of the University of Minho, challenged the skills and creativity of all engineering students at the University of Minho and was sponsored and supported by several companies in the region, including APTIV, Fujitsu, Guimarães City Hall, Tecminho, and Botnroll. The competition consisted of a 24-hour marathon in which multidisciplinary teams developed an innovative product or service to address a current University problem.

The opening session was attended by Carlos Videira, Advisor to the Social Services of the University of Minho, and the President of the Engineering School of the University of Minho (EEUM), João L. Monteiro, who in his speech considered it to be very important the search for solutions to problems and challenges of the University, but equally important that the students had fun while they were doing so.

During the event, some workshops were held by Startup Braga and Braga Toastmasters, with the purpose of providing students with knowledge and skills in the structuring of business ideas and the construction of speeches / presentations. The students also had the support and mentoring of several guests of the organization, with vast experience in different areas and sectors of activity.
The winners were elected by a jury composed by the Pro-Rector of the University of Minho, Manuel João Costa, António Paisana, Administrator of the SASUM, and representatives of the companies Primavera BSS and APTIV.

The winning team was the “Equipa Edifício 11” (João Moniz – MIEGSI; Eduardo Freitas – MIEMEC; Ana Margarida Maçães –MIEMEC; Miguel Carvalho – MIEGI; Catarina Gonçalves – MIEGI), with the proposal of LinkUM app for centralization of academic services; in 2nd place was the team “CEMsolver” (Luís Dias –MIEMAT; Carina Gomes- MIEMAT; Gustavo Macedo – MIEEIC; João Pedro Duarte – MIEBIOM; Carolina Gonçalves – MIEBIOM) and in 3rd place team Loading (Sérgio Teixeira – MIEMEC; Carolina Pereira – MIETEX; Divo Pinto –MIEMEC; Cátia Magalhães – MIETEX; Catarina Araújo Machado – MIEI).